Instagram Social & Feature Hacks: How to Grow Your Following in 2018

Instagram’s latest algorithm updates and features may have you feeling a little confused and depleted. You may have noticed that your account isn’t getting the same attention or following as it used to have and you’re asking yourself, how do I get more followers? These 10 Instagram hacks will help you get super social and master all features to increase your audience engagement and grow your following in 2018:

1. Share the love & get social!

It sounds simple stupid but this tip often gets overlooked for being so obvious. Don’t be afraid to share the love on Instagram. Be an active personality not only on your own account but by liking and commenting on other people’s photos too. Follow someone back if they follow you, post an authentic comment on a photo you like, have fun and don’t forget it’s called social media for a reason!

2. Strategically comment

While you’re getting your social media on, remember to be strategic with your comments. Keep a list of accounts that have audiences similar to yours and when you have time to actively engage, post authentic comments on their most recent pictures. The idea is that you become interesting and authentic enough for their followers to click through to your profile.

3. Approach others to collaborate

Don’t be afraid to approach other accounts with similar interests and offer to collaborate. It’s a great opportunity to get creative, gain some attention through their followers and build on your own.

4. Participate in a loop giveaway

A giveaway technique to get followers fast, with some Instagrammers getting up to 3,000 followers in a day. Buddy up with some friends and host a loop giveaway. Share the same image, at the same time, tagging one other host in the photo and get your followers to participate by liking the photo, tapping to see who is tagged, then find the same image on the next account and repeat the process until the loop is complete. It’s usually effective with a smaller amount of 6-8 hosts and when there is a great prize to giveaway.

5. Geo-tag your photos

A great way to build a local following is to tag your location in your photos. This exciting feature allows you to search for others who have checked into the same location as you whether that be a city, restaurant, local attraction or event. It’s super handy to check out the top Instagrammers in your area.

6. Posting at the right time

Timing is crucial in the social media sphere, if you post at the wrong time your photo may as well fall into a digital black hole. Avoid this by using tools such as IconoSquare to analyse the best time to share posts and Schedugram to help schedule posts at the most engaging times.

7. Use Instagram stories & live features daily

Currently the biggest trending feature on Instagram with more than 200 million people using Instagram stories everyday. This feature allows you to share behind the scenes content with not only your followers for 24hrs, but Instagram wide. Mentioning people or adding a hashtag to your story allows your story to appear in the search tab, which makes you discoverable to potential new followers.

8. Use Instagram Highlights feature

One of Instagram’s latest features allows you to permanently create a collection of your favourite Instagram stories. The highlights are saved at the top of your profile, which allows other users to view them as trailers to your account.

9. Start a photo series

Don’t be afraid to get creative; create your own hashtag series and encourage others to use it too!

10. Consider joining a pod

You may consider trying to get around Instagram’s latest algorithms by joining an Insta Pod. Usually very exclusive, Insta Pods are when groups of people join together to like and comment authentically on each others latest photos, pushing their content higher on the timeline or search tab.

For more Instagram hacks, read our post on Content Hacks. Have any other Instagram hacks that we didn’t mention? Feel free to share them below in the comments.